Where Now for European Social Democracy? - Policy Network

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MARISOL TOURAINE 95A degree of violence and incivilities are taking root in the perceptionof a socially hostile environment. Conversely, this insecurity isincreasing the public’s sense of uncertainty, and its need for theprotection that reduces this. It is not insignificant that the redefinitionof welfare policy must intervene at a moment marked, particularly inFrance, by a strong sense of insecurity. It is an illusion to imagine thatthe reform of these policies will produce a reduction in their cost.Social needs are growing and it is not possible to respond to them bytaking the risk of social disintegration. Our societies need to find a new‘historic compromise’, which will allow us to reconcile the constraintsof mobility resulting from economic dynamism, and the demand forsecurity – the sole guarantee of civil, social and national integration.Systems of protection under pressureThe crisis of social states is manifested firstly as a financial crisis. Therise of unemployment and poverty, ageing populations, and the growthof health spending have suddenly provoked a questioning of the socialsystem. But the policy of financial restriction, which has been imposedacross all domains in France, responds to neither expectations norneeds. Too restrictive for some, too loose for others, the post-warcompromise has found its limits. It is today confronted with fiveprinciple challenges that cannot be ignored.The first of these challenges is the disappearance of the socialconditions on which this system was founded, notably in France. Socialsecurity was established in the context of economic growth, and inparticular because of the double security of employment and familystructures. It was the head of the family, the breadwinner, whothrough his employment provided for those economically dependent onhim. The profound changes in employment in addition to the mutationsin family structures have weakened the guarantees to which theywere attached.This double transformation has also resulted in an evolution in thenature of the risks that need to be covered. On the one hand the riskslinked to the world of work are evolving, and yet they are not any morethe dominant force. They are evolving in that the accidents of work
96WHERE NOW FOR EUROPEAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY?and retirement no longer exhaust the list of situations to guaranteeagainst. The question of unemployment, and increasingly, ofprecarious working practices – the so-called working poor – andprofessional mobility have become central. At the same time, the careof the elderly, the social integration of families, the guarantee ofuniversal health care, and also insurance against new risks – medical orecological – have all become essential.In third place, we do not always take obstacles and individual riskssufficiently into account. At the heart of the world of work, theremoval of professional obstacles is a major accomplishment of recentyears. Employees have to be mobile, flexible, and permanently readyto adapt. These factors generate disquiet and angst; whereas theclassical social state offered the employee subordination in exchangefor security, today it expects complete flexibility without guaranteeagainst its side effects. Where once the employee was protected bytheir membership of a class or social category, the emergence of intracategoricalinequalities deprives the worker of statutory protectionwithout providing any new personal guarantee. The particularity of anindividual’s obstacles – what Ulrick Beck called the de-standardisationof work – is dealt with insufficiently by a system that privileges thedefence of employees, 4 but which is no longer homogenous.Moreover, the providential state did not sufficiently reduceinequalities. The very different impact from country to country ofsocial transfers on poverty is instructive in this respect. One exampletaken from what is referred to here as the French paradox in thematter of health illustrates this: whilst our system of care remainsglobally very efficient, which translates into a spectacular increase inlongevity, this performance has not reduced the pre-existing impact ofsocial class; France has the highest instance of premature death(before 65 years of age) especially among men, of all Europeancountries. The system of care has therefore made considerableprogress in the state of the country’s health without reducinginequality.Finally, all this illustrates without doubt that the social state isfacing a crisis of legitimacy. This in itself constitutes a significantchallenge. Until 15 years ago, the French social insurer had the feeling
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Where Now forEuropeanSocial Democra
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Published in 2004 by Policy Network
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AcknowledgementsThis collection of
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Notes on the ContributorsTony Blair
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PrefaceTONY BLAIRI welcome this pub
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6WHERE NOW FOR EUROPEAN SOCIAL DEMO
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What is a just society?For a radica
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GrowthandProsperity
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Page 58 and 59: JEAN PISANI-FERRY 51and full employ
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Page 62: JEAN PISANI-FERRY 55macroeconomic f
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